Various structures have been heretofore suggested and/or utilized for conversion of normally hand held and operated power tools to table mounted and guided tools. Such tools have included mounts for operation of hand held drill motors in drill press-like structures and table mounts for hand held routers, jig saws and the like. Such structures typically include a deck (work surface) together with a tool mounting mechanism.
More particularly, such structures have heretofore been suggested and/or utilized for application with portable band saws, electrically powered hand tools having a gear driven flexible blade and motor held at a frame body including a case having a blade housing and a handle (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,251,525 and 4,823,666 which show a structure for converting such band saws to upright table saws, and the no. 48-08-0260 portable band saw table from Milwaukee, the nos. 3JF38 and 3JF39 Porta-Band Stands from Porter Cable, all three of which are used for supporting pivoting, horizontal, operations).
Such heretofore known and/or utilized structures for conversion of hand held and operated band saws to table mounted and guided tools, and particularly those adapted for supporting pivoting saw movement, have, however, typically been configured only for use with one particular brand of tools, have required modification of the band saw housing, have not provided structure rigorous enough to support repeated, consistent cuts, and/or have left the band saw blade susceptible to jamming or binding during band saw use. Moreover, such structures have typically not provided adequate work surface stability absent provision by the user of additional support structure. Further improvements could thus still be utilized in such structures for supporting and guiding pivoting movement during operation of portable band saws.